It's a wild ride through the communications universe these days. Worlds are colliding as a slew of new players plunge headlong into the rich media game. Today telecom companies, which have traditionally played in the voice connectivity and voice services arenas, are moving into data services and content distribution. Cable and satellite companies, the traditional suppliers of content, are going in the opposite direction-toward data connectivity and voice services.
"Now you start to see wireline companies becoming broadband operators with high-speed DSL lines; you have the Internet; and you have mobile operators offering 2.5G or 3G services and starting to distribute content on mobile devices. Plus you have Wi-Fi hotspots that enable yet another distribution model for content," observed Gabriele DiPiazza, director, rich media services, Network & Service Provider Business, HP. "I believe that, in the near future, there will be no difference between a cable company and a telco company."
Embracing the entire digital value chain
According to DiPiazza, today's HP customers-including telecom operators, wireless operators, and media and entertainment companies-use "homegrown" systems with multiple software applications installed as the core components for their digital content management.
"They have multiple interfaces," he said. "They have multiple integration points that they need to manage and maintain. And, with multiple people accessing the system, there's a security problem that must be addressed. The key issue from a customer perspective is an integration capability in order to streamline the process for content acquisition and management.
"The distribution model for content is changing," he continued, "and, therefore, the technology that enables this distribution model needs to be able to acquire and manage content for all these channels. The traditional system, which is closed and proprietary, must be transformed into a whole digital value chain for responding to these needs."
Enabling new revenue opportunities
As profits from voice and data connectivity shrink, DiPiazza said, telcos are looking to rich media or digital media services, as a way to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU). They need a way to streamline the process of content acquisition and transmission-which is outside the traditional purview of a telco, and they need a solution with open standards to connect different formats from content providers with different solutions and applications for content acquisition, transcoding, and distribution.
This scenario extends beyond simply providing voice, video, and data over a single pipe-the "triple play" dynamic-he emphasized. "It's also about what is happening in the home. Whenever a cable operator or telco company starts to provide a service in your home, that service becomes much more sticky, which means there are different ways to increase ARPU. You can do it by launching new services. Or you can layer subscription connectivity on top of your Wi-Fi connectivity. And you can bundle services together in combinations that appeal to consumers."
HP, DiPiazza added, is looking at not only the back-end solution for building content management, content distribution, and delivery systems, "but also how to link them into the front-end user devices in the home. HP is entering the space of digital entertainment centers, digital media center PCs, home media hubs, digital TVs, and so on."
Digital Media Platform streamlines content acquisition and management
To enable this new model for embracing and streamlining the digital media value chain and ignite new revenue opportunities, HP and its strategic partners have introduced the Digital Media Platform (DMP). It combines industry-leading technologies in a standards-based, end-to-end solution that manages the entire rich media workflow-from the initial content creation and acquisition through production and into storage, retrieval, and archiving.
"We have open APIs (application program interfaces) to connect the different media applications, for example, digital asset management, editing systems, transcoding systems, and storage repository systems," offered DiPiazza. "We're using off-the-shelf IP technology to connect multiple applications into an end-to-end streamlined and flexible workflow."
The DMP streamlines the end-to-end process of content acquisition, management, and distribution, dramatically cutting the costs associated with integrating multiple platforms. Because it has a single core of integration, it reduces the complexity for all security aspects involved with allowing multiple users to access the platform. And it enables easy and cost-effective reuse and repurposing of content to feed multiple distribution channels in diverse forms-a "buy once, use many" approach that yields significant benefits and helps maximize returns.
A growth path to profitability
The Digital Media Platform is a strategic investment for HP's rich media customers, DiPiazza pointed out, because the rich media landscape is ever changing. "We're talking about a fragmented ecosystem of software vendors, as well as digital formats that aren't yet stabilized. Think about how digital content technology has already evolved and how it will continue to evolve.
"The Digital Media Platform can easily connect to current and future applications without having to be hard-coded into applications from different vendors," he explained. "It's our business to provide a growth path for our customers so they can integrate applications today; and as they grow into the future, connect to new applications as the formats change. They won't need to change the core of the platform because it uses an external workflow; they just need to create the respective adapters. DMP represents the investment for the future."
Companies experiencing turbulence in the ever-changing communications universe can take heart knowing that the Digital Media Platform is available to turn the potential of digital rich media into a profitable reality.
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